Support has tried to be helpful, but still unresolved is the following: 1. I have two phone lines. 2. Was told would boost speed (we are 10K feet from AT&T ofc.) by using Y splitter to link the two lines. 3. It seems that this is what I want:/Users/vjrd/Desktop/Screen shot 2011-07-18 at 4.22.01 PM.png

Hmm. Thought the image would show. However, it is not the POTS splitter, but one that does the opposite, two telephone jacks that become one that you plug into the modem. You can see it here @ cordsplus: http://www.cordsplus.com/pages/telephon ... ories.html Scroll down to an image on the left side of the screen that says "Telephone Multi-Line Adapters Made to Order."

4. If that is what I want, then I am having real trouble finding in Berkeley, though Lasher's said they had the parts and could make one. ISince physical setups vary, this may be the solution.

5. Of the lines that will directly connect to the modem, one is dedicated at this entry point to the modem. The other goes to my husband's office phone. Assume I must add a line conditioner to that phone . . . but how, given the configuration?

I declined the tech assist b/c I thought this would be a breeze. So far it is except for this pesky adapter / line conditioner problem. Any pictures would be especially appreciated! And sorry my screen shot doesn't show.

I am going to assume that you signed up for "bonded" Fusion service. Bonded service consists of 2 regular Fusion lines, and 2 phone numbers, at about twice the cost of a regular Fusion line.

If that is true, you do not need an external Y connector to join the 2 lines together. Almost every typical phone jack in use today is capable of handling 2 lines. If you pop the cover off any phone jack in your house or apartment you will find that inside there are four wires going to the actual jack, where the phone plugs in. These wires are almost always red, green, yellow and black.

A phone line consists of 2 wires (one pair). In the jack, if only one line (pair) is coming from outside that pair will connect to the red and green wires of the outlet. The black and yellow will be unused. For 2 lines going to one jack, then the 2nd line connects to the black and yellow wires.

If you unplug a telephone wire from either the wall or the back of the phone and look carefully at the plug one the end of the wire you can see the little copper wires that make contact when the plug is inserted. Generally there will be 4 of those contacts, although sometimes on cheaper wires that are meant to be used on single line only plugs there will be only 2. When there are 4, the two inside contacts are the same as the red and green wires, and the outside 2 are the same as the yellow and black wires.

So the telephone line going to the jack where you want to plug in the modem needs to have all 4 wires connected at the point where the telephone line comes into your house or apartment building. One Fusion line will connect to the wires going to the red and green screws on the jack and the other Fusion line going to the yellow and black screws on that same outlet. The telephone cord that came with the modem has 4 wires inside, and it will carry both Fusion lines to the modem.

You don't need any external "Y" connector to tie the lines together. That's all done inside the modem, as long as both Fusion lines go to the jack feeding the modem.

Does this clarify things a little?

If it does, your next step might be figuring out if both Fusion lines make it to the phone jack nearest the modem now, and if not, how to set that up. You can turn any telephone into a test set that will help you figure this out for about $5 worth of parts from most any hardware store, or Radio Shack. Let us know.

If I'm understanding correctly, this is something that just happened to be included in the self-install kit for the Xyzel P-663HN-51 bonded ADSL2+ modem/routers we were using for a while: a y-cord with three heads, one labeled DSL1, one labeled DSL2, each of which connected to a third head which has DSL1's pair on the inside, and DSL2's pair on the outside. This is useful for when the end-user has the two separate lines terminating at two separate jacks.

Frequently folks will hook up their internal jacks so that the blue/blue-white pair are on the inside pins and the orange/orange-white on the outside pair, which is reasonably easy to sort out at the phone box, but this practice isn't universal. On older phone systems, the blue/blue-white pair is red and green, and the orange/orange-white pair is black and yellow instead. Our installers see wild departures from this on a daily basis, so your mileage may vary.

An easy ad-hoc solution would be to go to your local Radio Shack (some well-stocked drug stores carry them, too) and purchase a two-line splitter, the kind with an L1, L2, and L1+L2 port on one side and a male connector on the other. Run a normal phone cord from each wall jack to the L1 and L2 ports, then the connector directly to the modem (that which splits lines also joins them). I picked up a splitter like that for $9.99 before sales tax a couple years ago:

Regarding line conditioners, any device other than the modem that is one either line should be connected to a line filter (phones, fax machines, answering machines, DVRs, alarm systems, etc.).

Thusla, brilliant! Thanks to you and Dane and to Radio Shack, where we put everything together on the spot. It seems not only to have worked, but to have doubled my down/upload speeds. . . .

Uh-oh. Maybe not all OK. I just opened a second browser window and this popped up on my screen:

another device on the network is using your computer's IP address (192.168.1.3). TRY CONNECTING AGAIN LATER, IF YOU CONTINUE TO HAVE PROBLEMS, CHANGE THE IP ADDRESS OF THIS COMPUTER OR THE IP ADDRESS OF THE OTHER DEVICE. CONTACT THE NETWORK ADMINISTRATOR IF YOU NEED MORE INFORMATION.

Sorry for the caps. After that message appeared, though, the window opened. Now I've tried opening other windows in Safari and in Opera, and both seem to function just fine, so maybe it was an anomaly. I'll hope so.